Welcome back to Life with Pris Wong
Hello friends!
Today marks Day 51 of this lock down for COVID-19. And I know some of you are used to staying home often, but for others, staying home might just drive you insane. So I’ve curated a list to help keep you busy!
What to do when you’re bored? Well… let’s dive right in.
Do a Face Mask
We all have some sort of face masks laying around. Clay masks, sheet masks, etc. If you don’t, opt for a DIY mask! You’ll be surprised at how much ingredients you already have in your household that you can turn into a face mask.
Check out my blog series to find what kind of ingredients around your house can be turned into a variety of masks!
Part 1 of Ingredients Around Your Household
Part 2 of Ingredients Around Your Household
Meditate
Meditation provides a wide variety of benefits. It reduces stress, which in turn, helps control anxiety, promotes emotional health, enhances self awareness, lengthens the attention span, increases mental clarity and focus, triggers the brain’s relaxation response, and much more! There are a variety of options to help you meditate if you need the guidance.
Find meditation guides from YouTube, Apps you can download from your phone, or if possible, practice it yourself! Find a playlist on Spotify to set the mood in the background.
Do a Hair Mask
Just like the face masks, we may not have products readily available, maybe you don’t want to spend money. That’s okay too! Because there are a lot of options you can do with ingredients you can find around your household. The most popular ingredients being: coconut oil, olive oil, almond or avocado oil, avocadoes, eggs, and yogurt.
Check out my blog posts linked above for more inspiration on concoctions of hair masks!
Give Yourself a Facial
It’s so easy to do an at-home-facial! Awhile back I purchased my own facial steamer from Amazon for an average of $30-40 CAD! It sits on my table top and I am able to sit for approximately 10 minutes (until the water runs out) for a facial steam. If you don’t have your own facial steamer, that’s okay! You can boil a pot of water and use that steam instead! Just drape a towel over to keep the heat in.
If you are experienced with extracting, you can do this at home as well. I am experienced and have been doing it for awhile, so I know the limits that my skin can handle! It is not suggested to be doing this at home yourself, especially if you are inexperienced. It is usually recommended that you have the help of a professional do this for you. However, as I have noted, I have been doing this for awhile now, and I know the limits to what my skin can handle.
I also purchased a black head suction tool that I use to help pull some of the gunk out of my skin. Note these alternatives you can buy at home like the blackhead suction tool, can be very damaging on your skin if used excessively. So proceed with caution!
Follow with your skincare routine!
Take a Bubble Bath
This quarantine can trigger lots of stress, and we need to find as many ways as possible to lower this stress! So, why not run a bubble bath. If you have bath bombs, use them. If you have some Epsom salt, use it. If you have only body wash, just use that! That works too!
If you have some essential oils laying around, drop some in the bath water to enhance it!
Give Yourself a Manicure
I’m not sure about you, but I have a LOT of nail polishes. Many in which I stopped using, and have been sitting there for years. I’m guilty. So take this time to go through your stash, throw out those ones that are a couple years old, ones that are getting clumpy, etc. Pick your favourite shade and give yourself a manicure! If you have manicure tools, go to town! Take off your cuticles, file your nails to your desired shape and length.
Throw on a movie or show while you’re doing so, and make sure YOU DON’T MOVE! I can get pretty impatient, so having a show or movie on in the background definitely helps.
Exercise
Exercising regularly weekly provides many benefits for the body that we may or may not be aware of. The most obvious ones are to help you control your weight and reduce your risk of heart disease and other chronic diseases, but it also:
- manages your blood sugar and insulin levels
- helps you quit smoking
- improves your mental health
- makes you feel happier
- help keeps your thinking, learning and judgment skills sharp as you age
- good for your muscles and bones
- increase energy levels
- can help skin health
- improves relaxation and sleep quality
Following a workout routine or schedule can be difficult. I have phases where I workout regularly, and then I workout once a month at most. We are all guilty of it.
My Tip: pick specific days of the week like Monday, Wed, Friday, and set a desired time within each day to FORCE yourself to workout. If I don’t workout, I like to at least give my body a good stretch.
Spring Clean
Time to Spring Clean! What better time than now! Though technically you are only moving things from one pile to another, it will still help you feel better!
Where do I begin?
- Go into your closet. Take a look at the clothes that you haven’t worn in the past year or 2. Yes those. Those are the ones you’re most likely not going to wear again. So, get rid of them.
- Put these clothes either into a donation pile or put it into a pile for people you think would make use of them that you know
- Go into your products now! The skincare, hair, body, household products you have not used. Ask yourself how old it is, if you have used them, or are really going to use them.
- Toss them in the garbage, or give them to someone else who might make use of them.
Opt for Healthier Snacks and Drinks
It’s easy to eat junk. And honestly that’s all I feel like I’ve been doing.. And I feel like I have less energy because of it, and I have more bodily pains. It’s okay to indulge in some junk. Everything in moderation! But make sure you opt for some healthier snacks and drinks.
- Opt for HEALTHIER JUICES like Pressed Juice. Always check the ingredients, sometimes you’re not benefiting from them at all, and all you’re getting is sugar, and not the healthy kind
- Make a smoothie
- Have some nuts
- Eat some fruit
Cook Your Own Meals
Cook! Try out new recipes! Just please try not to bake so much. I get everyone is home and is opting to bake instead of buying bread and cookies, BUT we are getting low on baking supplies. I’m living within the GTA, and guys, you can’t find flour or yeast anywhere. Same with chocolate chips!
Save some of those ingredients for others! Or give some of your baked goods to others!
Order Some Takeout to Support Your Local Small Businesses
Now more than ever small businesses need our help. Many businesses are forced to close because of the pandemic, but also forced to shut down completely because they can’t afford to keep a place open! So, do your part and order some takeout for dinner or lunch occasionally! And encourage others to do the same! No body wants to see our favourite spots close down! Let’s all do our part!
Because of this, Uber Eats has incorporated a section in their delivery for you to contribute a small portion that goes to the business themselves!
Create Routines and Practice Them (skincare, morning, night, etc)
I’ve talked about the importance of routines in a previous blog post. But in summary, routines are important because:
- it creates structure in our lives
- saves us time
- instills good habits
- breaks bad habits
- we learn to prioritize
- lowers stress levels
It helps if you create a set routine in the morning and night. To view mine:
My morning routine consists of: waking up and drinking water to awaken my digestive system, brushing my teeth, cleansing my face, morning skincare routine, followed by making coffee and setting up my station for working from home.
Night time: SKINCARE! SKINCARE! SKINCARE!
For my morning routine and night time routine, I have posted IGTV videos. To which you can find on my Instagram, just look for the thumbnails!
Instagram: @lifewithpriswong
Create a Backup of All Your Important Files (photos, vidoes, documents, etc.) on to a Portable Hard Drive or USB
If you only have USBs, use them. Just make sure you don’t lose them. But it’s good to have multiple backups! To start, have a portable hard drive in which you can save everything on to.
I have over 11k items in my iCloud that needs to be saved. And with iCloud restrictions, you can only save 1k items at time. Then I have to unzip the files and transfer/save into my designated folder in my hard drive. This is time consuming! But it needs to be done because I need backups.
Note to self: have a backup of your backup! Purchase another portable hard drive for this.
Catch Up with Old Friends
I have a lot of close friends who I can trust with my life. And life happens. We all get distant, but if they’re your true friends, that doesn’t matter. Catch up with them. It will do us all a world of good.
I recently got in touch again with a really good friend that I met in high school, we were best friends, told each other everything, talked occasionally, etc. and because life happens, we stopped talking. But it didn’t mean anything because we are back to where we were before, and if not, even closer now. I love my friends so much, and they know this. I have more than a handful of girls I can trust with my life. My best friends may know more than some of my family members. I love you guys so much, thank you for being a part of my life. I appreciate every single one of you. Thank you.
Good Vibes Only!
It’s time to get rid of the bad vibes on social media. Sorry, but we all have those few people that we don’t know why we follow, either they just aren’t your vibe anymore and you don’t really talk to them; or you have a bunch of random ppl you follow in IG you have been meaning to unfollow. Now is your chance!
For the longest time, I followed a bunch of girls that work for MLM companies, who would always reach out to me, and if that’s what you believe in and work for, I respect you for making those decisions. I respect and understand that in this world, you can make money off of social media promotions, and that’s what social media influencer life is all about. But I will not participate in any MLM companies. Thank you, but no thank you! I had to unfollow a bunch of these because I quickly realized that I was not for this, so why am I following you if that’s ALL you talk about?
That’s just me. Don’t hate.
Try Making Dalgona Coffee
If you haven’t heard, this is the “whipped coffee” that everyone is making. It’s a Tik Tok thing as well. Anyways, I finally tried it out, and mmmm, it’s really good.
It takes:
2 tbsp of instant coffee
2 tbsp of sugar
2 tbsp of water
All you do is just whip those ingredients together until they’re fluffy! And add on top of your desired milk!
SO GOOD.
That’s all for this week folks! I hope this helped you 🙂
Let me know if you already do some of these, and the impact it has made on you. Or, if you’ try anything from this list.
Once again, you’ll find me on social media!
With love,
Pris Wong xo
lifewithpriswong 